(MBB) Welcome to the Real World, Agumon
by reminiscent-afterthought
Summary: [AT, slight destiny-swap] It is Masaru and not Ikuto who's lost in the digital world as a child, and one day Agumon emerges in the real world, and searching for his precious Aniki. Yoshino winds up picking him up - but DATS and the Daimon family aren't prepared for what he brings along.
1. 1-01

**A/N:** The first of the My Big Brother series, a destiny-swap of sorts where Masaru is the one sucked in to the Digital World as a child and…well, the rest of the changes will be revealed in due course. :D Fics in this series will be abbreviated with (MBB) to show they're a part of it, or you can look at my series information page and follow the yellow brick road of links (the only thing not up to date is the number of chapters in WIPs…) and go from there. :) Whichever you prefer.

This is also written for the Building Blocks challenge at the DFC, using the poem prompt 74. _A child said, What is the grass? _by Walt Whitman – as the prompt. It's a cute little poem. I'd recommend reading it. :)

This first chapter is also written for the Advent Calendar Challenge at the DFC, day 5 - Start a fic you have yet to post.

* * *

**The My Big Brother Series**

* * *

**_Welcome to the Real World, Agumon_**

* * *

_"A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full  
hands;  
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it  
is any more than he."_

_A child said, What is the grass?_  
Walt Whitman

* * *

**1.01**

Agumon opened his eyes. His battered body ached. His eyes watered. The sun stared back at him.

He blinked. His eyes cleared a little. And maybe the sun blinked back. Maybe not. But it looked…odd, somehow.

He blinked again. Then it hit him. The Digital World's sun didn't make his eyes water. It…just didn't do that.

He looked around. The sun was up. The grass was below – and he took a sniff and sneezed. It smelt funny, nothing like the Digital World grass at all. And there was a building there. And lots of trees that didn't have fruits hanging from them and bars that looked friendlier than a dungeon but still uncannily like one…

And there was no Aniki. Just his aching body after being battered by that storm and…this strange place. Or world.

_Where are you, Aniki? _Everything looked odd; recognisable enough to put names to most things but ultimately unfamiliar._ And…where am I?_


	2. 1-02

**The My Big Brother Series**

* * *

**_Welcome to the Real World, Agumon_**

* * *

**1.02**

Buildings were usually a good place to start. There were a lot of them, Agumon realised, once he'd looked around a little more. Separated by rather funny little things. They weren't quite wood: smelt like wood though there was something more – or something less – but there was another smell entirely overlaying it. A smell that made him sneeze again after he'd sniffed a little too closely.

At least it still smelt remotely of wood. Dead wood, mind. Better than the grass though, which looked reasonably like grass but didn't smell like grass at all.

Then he smelt something else which was most definitely not wood or grass – whichever kind. When there was a shriek, Agumon looked up to find the source of the scent. Moving and screaming so definitely not inanimate. But it didn't look like any digimon he recognised. Or smell like one he recognised either.

And the look on its face wasn't one of recognition either.

'Mum! There's a – there's a –'

Agumon blinked. He supposed "Mum" was the name of another digimon or digimon species – not one he recognised either. He'd never heard of the word. He understood the rest though.

Even if the words were not particularly informative.


	3. 1-03

**The My Big Brother Series**

* * *

**_Welcome to the Real World, Agumon_**

* * *

**1.03**

"Mum" turned out to be quite big. But kind.

And the kindness was the important one. Because she gently pushed him inside like Frigimon had the day he'd wondered into her home, and put a steaming plate in front of him.

It smelled different, just like everything smelled different, but it was still delicious. It made his stomach growl. It made his gums salivate. It made him reach out and scoop the food off the plate with his claws and stuff it all in his mouth without even thinking it might not be edible or it might be something he wouldn't like.

In truth, everything in the digital world was edible, because everything was made of data. So him not thinking of the possibility that what he was eating now wasn't edible wasn't out of the ordinary at all.

And it turned out to be delicious. So he hadn't had to worry about not liking it either.

He only had to worry about their being enough.


	4. 1-04

**The My Big Brother Series**

* * *

**_Welcome to the Real World, Agumon_**

* * *

**1.04**

It turned out plates weren't for eating. Sure, they were nothing when facing his robust teeth but they scratched at his throat and it took ages for his stomach to break them down. And in the meantime, they fought with the yummier things he'd filled his belly in so he'd rolled on something comfortable as the sun turned off.

Or "set", the big kind Mum corrected him. 'It's called a sunset.'

Sunsets were muted colours here, but they lasted. The Digital World had brighter colours but they'd just flash like there was something scary and wrong and then the sky would be black.

Even after the sun sets, the sky doesn't quite go black.

His stomach starts to feel better, though. And when Mum tells him only things put _on_ the plate are edible, he notes it down.

What's the point of eating delicious food if there's pain at the end of it?


End file.
